Plants rely on sunlight to make their food, but they also need protection from its harmful rays, just like humans do. Recently, scientists discovered a group of molecules in plants that shields them from sun damage. Now, in an article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, one team reports on the mechanics of how these natural plant sunscreens work. Timothy Zwier and colleagues at Purdue University note that the harsh ultraviolet radiation plants are exposed to daily can cause serious damage to plant DNA and, as a result, hinder plant growth. Biochemical tests ...

An overwhelming number of chemicals from household and industrial products are in the environment – and hundreds are in our bodies. But for most of them, scientists have yet to determine whether they cause health problems. Now they've taken the first step toward doing that by estimating which substances people are exposed to the most. Their new method is published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. John F. Wambaugh and colleagues note that the risks to human health of any given substance depend primarily on two factors: the potential hazards ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 2014--Unable to fly, nestling birds depend on their parents for both food and protection: vocal communication between parents and offspring helps young birds to determine when they should beg for food and when they should crouch in the nest to avoid a predator seeking an easy meal. A group of researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia has found that ambient, anthropomorphic noise – from traffic, construction and other human activities – can break this vital communications link, leaving nestlings vulnerable ...

Integrins are adhesion molecules expressed on the surface of cells. They play a crucial role in "integrating" the cell exterior and the interior cytoskeleton in cells. The beta2-integrin family members are highly expressed in dendritic cells that are very important in immune responses. Dendritic cells pick up antigens in inflamed tissues and move to lymph nodes where they present the antigen to T cells and activate them to help fight infection. Dr Susanna Fagerholm's groups at the Institute of Biotechnology in Helsinki, Finland, and at the University of Dundee, UK, found ...

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special feature of 31 articles describing the data gathered by Planck over 15 months of observations and released by ESA and the Planck Collaboration in March 2013. This series of papers presents the initial scientific results extracted from this first Planck dataset. The Planck satellite was launched in May 2009. With the highest accuracy to date, it measures the remnants of the radiation that filled the Universe immediately after the Big Bang. It is the oldest light in the Universe, emitted when it was 380000 years old. This ...

October 27, 2014 — Cambridge, MA and Hebei, China — BGI Tech and Hebei Agricultural University jointly announced the complete, high quality sequencing of the Jujube genome. Jujube is the most economically important member of the Rhamnaceae family, and the Jujube genome is particularly difficult to sequence due the high level of heterozygosity and other complicating factors. It is the first time that a genome in the Rhamnaceae (Buckthorn) family has been sequenced. This study has been recently published in Nature Communications. Jujube is a major commercial ...

The development of minimally and even non-invasive technologies is increasing in the medical field. It is now possible, for instance, to carry out a range of operative procedures using keyhole surgery with minimal use of the scalpel, leaving only tiny scars as a result. Similar opportunities are now becoming available when providing doses of active agents to patients – instead of using injections or probes to deliver drugs, it will in future be possible to supply them via a plaster which continuously, gently and painlessly delivers the required dosage through the ...

Virtually all organisms in the living world compete with members of their own species. However, individuals differ strongly in how much they invest into their competitive ability. Some individuals are highly competitive and eager to get access to high-quality resources, while others seem to avoid competition, instead making prudent use of the lower-quality resources that are left over for them. Moreover, the degree of competitiveness in animal and human societies seems to fluctuate considerably over time. A theoretical study published in "Nature Communications" this week ...

Philadelphia, PA, October 29, 2014 – Ghrelin is a hormone released by the stomach and it stimulates appetite and food intake. Alcohol is commonly viewed as a psychoactive substance that primarily affects brain function, but it is also a highly caloric food. This knowledge, combined with findings from animal studies, led researchers to the hypothesis that ghrelin has the potential to stimulate alcohol craving. Dr. Lorenzo Leggio and his colleagues tested this in humans and found that, as they had anticipated, alcohol craving was increased in heavy drinkers following ...

TORONTO, ON, Oct. 28, 2014 — People living in rural areas are at no greater risk of dying from heart disease than their urban counterparts, according to a new study by researchers at Women's College Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The study, the first to examine outpatient quality of care between urban and rural communities, counters existing research, which suggested gaps in care for those living in rural areas. "Research has long suggested people with heart disease in rural areas are at a disadvantage when it comes to access ...

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have sequenced the genome of enterovirus D68 sampled from patients treated at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Nationwide, the virus has spread rapidly in recent months and caused severe respiratory illness in young children, with some patients requiring hospitalization. "Having the DNA sequence of this virus enables additional research," said senior author Gregory A. Storch, MD, the Ruth L. Siteman Professor of Pediatrics. "It can be used to create better diagnostic tests. It also may help us understand ...

DENVER (Oct. 29, 2014) – The severe flooding that devastated a wide swath of Colorado last year might have been less destructive if the bridges, roads and other infrastructure had been upgraded or modernized, according to a new study from the University of Colorado Denver. "People need to understand the importance and seriousness of infrastructure," said Jimmy Kim, PhD, associate professor of structural engineering at the CU Denver College of Engineering and Applied Science and lead author the study. "There is an assumption that a bridge will stand forever and that's ...

The research team previously identified that changes in the brain occur two decades before patients show signs of dementia. These changes can be detected through expensive brain imaging procedures. The new early detection blood-test could predict these changes and a person's risk of developing AD much earlier than is currently possible. The blood test has the potential to improve prediction for AD to 91 per cent accuracy. However, this needs to be further tested in a larger population across three to five years, due to AD being a progressive disease. In an initial ...

A multidisciplinary engineering team at the University of California, San Diego developed a new nanoparticle-based material for concentrating solar power plants designed to absorb and convert to heat more than 90 percent of the sunlight it captures. The new material can also withstand temperatures greater than 700 degrees Celsius and survive many years outdoors in spite of exposure to air and humidity. Their work, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot program, was published recently in two separate articles in the journal Nano Energy. By contrast, current ...

Washington D.C, October 29, 2014 -- Ant nests can offer a lot to organisms other than just ants. They are well-protected, environmentally-stable and resource-rich spaces -- in many ways everything a tiny creature could ask for in a home. So long as you can live with an army of ants of course. For the thousands of species of insects that squat inside ant nests, survival means finding ways to live with the ants -- by foiling the chemical cues ants use to distinguish friend from foe, for instance. Now a team of scientists from the University of Turin in Italy have been ...

CHICAGO, IL, OCTOBER, 29, 2014 – According to a new, wide-reaching collection of scientific reviews published in the October 2014 supplement issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, oats may play an important role in improving satiety, diet quality and digestive, cardiovascular and general metabolic health. In the supplement issue, entitled "Oats, More Than Just a Whole Grain," scientists from around the world explore the oat from agriculture and sustainability to nutrition policy and opportunity and new insights in nutritional science that go beyond cardiovascular ...

Black Republicans trust the United States government more than other political groups, finds a new study from the University of British Columbia, ahead of the mid-term U.S. elections to be held on November 4. Using election data from 1958 – 2012, the study measures the role race plays in determining levels of government trust for black and white Americans. While both groups show similar levels of political trust, when party lines are factored in, black Republicans are revealed to be the most faithful. "Being both black and Republican is seen by some as going against ...

CAPE TOWN, October 29, 2014 – Many of the women at first acted surprised. Some insisted the blood tests were wrong. But most conveyed to researchers why they had not used the study products assigned to them as participants in VOICE, a large HIV prevention trial that, as a likely consequence, did not find any of the three products that were tested to be effective. The women were among 127 former VOICE participants who, as part of a behavioral sub-study called VOICE D, agreed to take part in in-depth interviews and/or focus group discussions after learning the results ...

New research by the international Cancer Genomics of the Kidney consortium (CAGEKID) reveals an important connection between kidney cancer and exposure to aristolochic acid, an ingredient in some herbal remedies. The findings, published in Nature Communications, have important implications for public health. Kidney cancer kills more than 140,000 people every year, and in Central Europe incidence rates have been increasing dramatically. CAGEKID, part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), has been studying the genetic causes of this disease in Europe. The ...

A new study on a large cohort of kidney cancer patients in Europe sheds light on the genetic architecture of the disease -- and reveals an apparent link between exposure to aristolochic acid and incidence of kidney cancer, particularly in Romania. The research, by an international team led by scientists from the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre in Montreal, underscores the importance of investigating possible sources of exposure to aristolochic acid. The compound, found in plants of the Aristolochia genus, also has been suspected of causing a kidney ...

Sophia Antipolis, 20 October 2014. The condition of an athlete's heart has for the first time been accurately monitored throughout the duration of a marathon race. The real-time monitoring was achieved by continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) surveillance and data transfer over the public mobile phone network to a telemedicine centre along the marathon route. This new development in cardiac testing in endurance athletes, said investigators, "would allow instantaneous diagnosis of potentially fatal rhythm disorders". Following trails in two marathon races, the investigators ...

Eating Mediterranean or DASH-style diets, regularly engaging in physical activity and keeping your blood pressure under control can lower your risk of a first-time stroke, according to updated AHA/ASA guideline published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke. "We have a huge opportunity to improve how we prevent new strokes, because risk factors that can be changed or controlled — especially high blood pressure — account for 90 percent of strokes," said James Meschia, M.D., lead author of the study and professor and chairman of neurology at the ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Researchers using a combination of different imaging techniques have found structural abnormalities in the brains of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. The results suggest a potential role for imaging in diagnosing and treating the condition. CFS is characterized by profound fatigue and "brain fog" that do not improve with bed rest, lasting for at least six months. The condition affects more than 1 million adults and children in the United States, according to the Centers ...

An imaging study by Stanford University School of Medicine investigators has found distinct differences between the brains of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and those of healthy people. The findings could lead to more definitive diagnoses of the syndrome and may also point to an underlying mechanism in the disease process. It's not uncommon for CFS patients to face several mischaracterizations of their condition, or even suspicions of hypochondria, before receiving a diagnosis of CFS. The abnormalities identified in the study, to be published Oct. 29 in Radiology, ...

A new study has found that certain prostate cancer medications are linked with an increased risk of dying from heart-related causes in men with congestive heart failure or prior heart attacks. Published in BJU International, the findings will help doctors and patients weigh the benefits and risks of the drugs. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), which reduces levels of male hormones in the body to prevent them from stimulating cancer cells, is a mainstay of treatment for prostate cancer. Despite its anticancer effects, ADT has been associated with heart problems, including ...